Susan Solo – VA/DC/MD Photographer

I used to be super into Halloween - I’d say it was easily one of my favorite holidays. I was a total ham, I’ve always loved being creative and dramatic, so dressing up for Halloween really fit the bill. When I was too old to go trick-or-treating myself, I still loved handing out candy to the neighborhood kids. Alas, the neighborhood that we live in now is completely void of trick-or-treaters. We are in the tiny townhouse section next to the streets full of huge mansions – which would you pick if you’re looking to score good loot? And I haven’t dressed up in a while either. The last couple of jobs that I have had as an adult didn’t really allow me to wear a costume to work, and while there were a few parties going on tonight, I found myself needing to get some work done! So the Halloween spirit has dwindled a bit for me. BUT…in the interst of still celebrating the day, I thought I’d post something festive: old pictures of my Halloween costumes and my top-five list of scariest movies!

First, the pictures. They’re scanned from prints, so please pardon the quality. These are all more recent than not. I’m sure my parents probably have pictures somewhere of me as a child wearing those plastic costumes. You know, the ones with mask that has the cheap rubber band to go around your head, with the tiny airhole you can barely breathe through, and the plastic character-printed smock that gets so hot. But here’s what I could find in my own archives.

My senior year of high school, I bent wire hangers and wove my hair around it for the perfect Pippi Longstocking ‘do. I used red food-coloring to tint my hair a little. The wire was painful, but cute I thought:

When I was a waitress during college, I dressed up as a goddess, making use of a dress I’d never wear again – I just added some drapery cord and made the wreath for my head:

And easily the worst of them all, me (in the pink) with a few girls that I worked with at my first office job. Here we are dancing around, flashing peace signs and playing, “Wannabe” on a boombox, barely passing as The Spice Girls. There were only four of us!

And, as promised, my top-five scariest movies of all time, according to me. Let me preface this by saying I am a big weenie, I hate scary movies, and only watch them when I am forced to or by accident, like when I am flipping through the channels and land on one that piques my curiosity.

1. The Exorcist – Two of my friends made me watch this when I was about 8 or 9. I think I slept with the lights on for two weeks.
2. Poltergeist – I can’t even have a doll or stuffed animal (and definitely not a clown) sitting anywhere in my room because of this movie, and static on the TV gives me goosebumps.
3. The Ring – Again, static on the TV freaks me out. I watched this one with the remote in-hand the whole time. I changed the channel a few times.
4. People Under the Stairs – Dude with the missing tongue…gross.
5. Blair Witch – I have no idea why this is so scary, it just is! I think about it whenever I see a dark, wooded area.

And my runner-up for sixth-place is Beetlejuice. Chris thinks that’s ridiculous, so it’s okay if you do too, but it really creeped me out when I saw it in the theater. Happy Halloween everyone!

People ask me all the time if I just carry a camera with me everywhere because of some of the things I photograph (inside grocery stores, things on the side of the road, random moments, etc.), and if I’m afraid of looking like a tourist. The answer is yes, I do have a camera with me most of the time. And no, I’m not afraid of looking like a tourist. It’s a part of me – I’m a photographer. That said, if you’re ever driving around with me, you’ll probably be witness to the fact that I will pull my car over at any given moment if I see something I want to shoot! Thank goodness Chris is used to this and doesn’t mind, even when we pulled over along a scary winding path on a cliff in St. John. And no matter how many times I gasp and say, for example, “Look at that cool tree!” (or door, or puffy cloud, or whatever) he humors me with, “yes, that’s a cool tree.” Speaking of which, I was driving home yesterday when I saw this cool tree, so I hopped out in traffic, got my shot, and hopped back in.

I so don’t care if I look like a tourist.